About The Choir of Merton College
The Choir of Merton College is one of Oxford’s leading mixed-voice choirs and sings the services, during term-time, in the thirteenth-century chapel.
The choir consists of 30 undergraduates and post-graduates at Oxford University reading for degrees in various subjects, many of whom hold choral scholarships at the College.
Since the establishment of Merton’s Choral Foundation in 2008, the choir has gained an international reputation through touring, recordings and broadcasts.
In 2020, the choir won the ‘Choral Award’ at the BBC Music Magazine Awards for its recording of Gabriel Jackson’s The Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ. The choir’s discography on the Delphian Label has seen numerous five-star reviews, and many recordings have been named ‘Editor’s Choice’ by Gramophone magazine.
The choir has appeared at The Three Choirs Festival and the Cheltenham Music Festival, and recent London appearances include the concert series at St John’s Smith Square, Cadogan Hall and The Temple Church.
The choir is regularly heard in concert with orchestra, and recent collaborations have seen the choir perform with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (Elgar’s The Apostles), Instruments of Time and Truth (Bach’s St Matthew Passion) and Oxford Baroque (Bach’s Mass in B minor).
The choir’s annual festival, Passiontide at Merton, has an established place in Oxford’s musical calendar and has led to exciting collaborations with such groups as The Cardinall’s Musick and The Marian Consort.
Merton College Choir regularly tours overseas and has recently visited the USA, Hong Kong and Singapore, France, Italy and Sweden. In 2017, the choir sang the first Anglican Service in St Peter’s Basilica, Vatican City – broadcast on BBC Radio 3.
